MovieMaker. 63 and 64.

Suddenly, two issues of MovieMaker are up: 63, a special "Future of Filmmaking" issue, and 64, the regularly scheduled Summer 06 issue. Add the online selections to the new "Hands-On-Pages," and there's a lot to catch up with.

David Roos revisits the clash between Comcast and Mark Cuban which, as he puts it, put IFC and Caveh Zahedi "in the crossfire." The bottom line: "Even in Indiewood, sometimes show business is show business."

Even so, "many feel indies are reaching a new pinnacle," writes David Sterritt. "Every major studio now has an indie or 'classics' branch to serve the growing number of moviegoers frustrated by the sameness of big-money tentpole pictures." But hold on; he talks with a handful of filmmakers and others in the industry who sound a series of cautionary notes. Mary Harron, for example: "It was much easier 10 years ago to work with low budgets and non-Hollywood actors." Or the Balboa Theater's Gary Meyer: "I predict that theatrical screens could shrink from about 37,000 now to less than 10,000 within the next decade. Movies with lowend budgets will be hit hardest."

David Fear talks with Michel Gondry about The Science of Sleep: "The visuals are important, but without a narrative, they're just pictures."

Bob Fisher looks at how Kevin Smith and Richard Kelly implemented "a digital intermediate, or DI process, whereby a conformed negative is scanned and converted to a digital file," on Clerks II and Southland Tales, respectively.

Matthew Power has advice for those looking to move from MiniDV to HD and more for those in search of convincing costumes on a tiny budget.

Roos and Jennifer Straus are convinced Hollywood's going green. Straus: "Finally, a Hollywood trend with some redeeming value. It seems that everywhere you look, another starlet is using her overexposure to promote an earth-friendly cause."

Jason Guerrasio talks with Michael Winterbottom about shooting The Road to Guantánamo. And, in grand MM tradition, Winterbottom offers a list of "Things I've Learned as a Moviemaker."

"Curtiz and Bogart. Kurosawa and Mifune. Herzog and Kinski. Scorsese and De Niro. Coraci and Sandler?" Jennifer M Wood asks Frank Coraci about working with his college bud. Coraci's "Things."

Also, talks with novelist and screenwriter Matthew Waynee (Waynee's "Things") and editor Alan Oxman (about his own experience, but also about The Edit Center; Oxman's "Things").

Lily Percy talks with actor Donal Logue about The Groomsmen. Logue's "Things."

Posted by dwhudson at August 7, 2006 1:29 PM